


Most Unkindest Cut

by TempestRising



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Sokka (Avatar), Betrayal, Crazy Azula (Avatar), Enemies to Friends, Friends to...?, Gen, Hurt Sokka (Avatar), Kidnapping, Prisoner of War, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Protective Team, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Torture, obviously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:21:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26689582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TempestRising/pseuds/TempestRising
Summary: Zuko took off his mask, the impossibility of the task ahead just beginning to reveal itself. He needed to get Sokka off this ship, past Azula and her hundred guards.Zuko looked at the burned boy in front of him and made the decision to betray the Fire Nation.Or: Zuko reluctantly rescues a kidnapped Sokka and somehow ends up joining Team Avatar.
Relationships: Sokka & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 194





	Most Unkindest Cut

__

_“If you want to change the world, change yourself. The world needs traitors.”_

**-Bauvard**

.***.

Sokka blinked. He was tied up, every instinct told him to struggle to his feet, to grab his boomerang. But he closed his eyes again and let his body go limp against the ropes. He needed to come up with a plan.

He wasn't in the Earth Kingdom anymore.

Or, maybe they were in Earth Kingdom waters, but this was definitely Azula's warship, complete with Fire Nation banners and lots and lots of fire benders. Luckily (or unluckily) he seemed to be in the back of a cell, far enough away from his captors that they may not have noticed he was awake yet. Which was a good thing. The enemy was talking.

"Shouldn't we bring him back to the Fire Lord?" That was one of those girls, the one who was always flipping around. A chi blocker who took away bending. Sokka thought she was probably very dangerous, which was annoying since she was also kind of cute.

"A water tribe peasant? What would my father do with him?" Ah. Azula. Great.

"I mean...he's a pretty valuable prisoner, right? We know he's friends with the Avatar. The Avatar would probably come looking for him."

"Or we could torture him right here, get him to tell us where the Avatar is, and only bother my father with important things."

A small gasp. "Azula! You're not actually going to torture him? He's not even a soldier. I think he's younger than we are."

"So is the Avatar, and yet we're all trying to kill him."

Sokka shuddered. Sometimes he got so caught up in the day-to-day life of being on Team Avatar, running from town to town, getting into skirmishes with Zuko, learning about river spirits or whatever. He knew there was a war they were fighting, but most days it was easy to forget how much risk they were actually taking on. Sokka was one of the most wanted people on the planet. And he hadn't even finished his manhood ceremony yet.

Worse, though, these two were talking about killing Aang, who may be a hundred and twelve but on the other hand was just...twelve, a dumb, exasperating, sweet twelve-year-old kid who was just trying to restore balance to the world.

Most days, Sokka managed to forget how much he hated the Fire Nation for what they did to his family, to Aang's family, to the world. Today wasn't one of those days.

He kept his eyes closed as he tested the ropes. He was tied tight, but there was so much metal around here that there must be...yes! A little wiggle and he was over a ridge in the floor, a sharp edge. He tried to keep his movements slow, so slow they wouldn't attract attention, but it was hard to exert enough force without that sense of urgency. Damnit! Some days he really, really wished he was a bender. He could just breathe fire at these two, burn the rope, get off the ship and back to his normal life of scraping by and saving people.

A few strokes into cutting the rope and his timing slipped. The sharp edge cut into his wrists and he couldn't help it, he grimaced at the pain.

"Look at that," the low silky voice of Azula. Sokka never thought he'd see the day where he wished they were still fighting Zuko, but here he was. At least Zuko seemed to fight with honor. Azula was just a psychopath. "Our little peasant's awake. Good."

No use in pretending now. He opened his eyes in time to see the chi blocker girl slip deeper into the shadows on the other side of the room. Azula advanced. "Now, don't make this harder than it needs to be."

She crouched down to his level, holding a ball of flame inches from Sokka's face. He flinched from the heat.

"Where's the Avatar?"

He could feel the heat under his skin, singing his eyebrows. Sokka drew back ---

So he could spit directly into Azula's face.

"Oh, good. And here I thought I might feel bad about torturing you. Ty Lee, get me some guards, a knife and..." she looked Sokka up and down. "A bucket of water."

.

If Zuko hadn't already decided that Azula was batshit crazy and needed to be stopped through any means possible, he may have been more alarmed by how easy it was to sneak aboard her ship. A knocked-out guard here, a stolen uniform there, and he blended right in to the other faceless men on the ship. He did take note of how easy the subterfuge was. If he ever had command of his own fleet again, he'd outlaw masks on day one.

They were docked in the water off a forgotten coast of the Fire Nation, fifty miles from Ba Sing Se. Obviously the Avatar was making his way there when Azula set upon the gang. The Avatar and the girls had gotten off on that crazy water buffalo of theirs, but the water tribe boy, Sokka, had been knocked from the saddle by a well-timed blast of fire from Azula. He'd fallen the several stories to the ground before the Avatar could airbend him away, and a ground assault from the guards kept the Avatar from doubling back for his friend.

Even as Zuko descended into the bowels of the ship, he was cursing himself. He was _also_ trying to capture the Avatar, what did it matter that his sister had one of the pieces of the puzzle first? Except he knew that it did matter. Ever since his defeat at the North Pole he'd been suspecting that the way the Fire Nation was fighting this war wasn't...honorable, wasn't ethical. He'd been remembering things about his past, the confrontation with his father, his treatment in the palace. Was this the way a nation became an empire? Was this the way to rule the world? An iron fist and threats of punishment?

He didn't know what he'd do with the boy beyond freeing him from Azula's clutches. He just knew he needed to do that part first.

It wasn't hard to find the right room. It was the one with all the screaming.

He made himself wait outside, standing in the ready position he'd seen countless guards take countless times throughout his lifetime. He'd never known how hard it was to be at the ready and just...wait. Wait, while terrible things happened.

Azula wasn't even bothering to keep her voice down. Didn't she care that the whole ship could hear her? "I've always thought it was kind of pathetic that the Avatar was dragging around someone like you. An earth bender and water bender I understand, but you're nothing but a liability."

Zuko had privately wondered the same things. He imagined that Sokka, in his heart of hearts, thought the same. Didn't everyone worry they weren't good enough?

There was a groan from inside the cell.

"Again."

A splash. A crackle of lightning. Zuko could feel the surge in his bones, on the hairs on his arms. He was not an accomplished fire bender, ask anyone in his family, but still his body was attuned towards the power. Had his sister really just lightning-bended inside a closed room? Away from a storm? Even Iroh, he was pretty sure, couldn't call lightning on command.

Zuko thought all that in the split second before Sokka's groans turned to screams of pain. He'd never heard anything like it. Zuko had been in so many battles and yet in most ways he was still untested. Pain, true pain, gave him no pleasure at all.

It took every part of him not to run into the room, place himself between his sister and whatever she was doing to the water tribe boy. He could already imagine her jeers. Who's side was he on?

Who's side _was_ he on?

Several minutes later, Azula came out, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Everything else about her was still immaculate, no blood, no grime. Of course. Azula held herself above all of that. Two guards followed behind, carrying an empty bucket and what looked like a wad of water tribe clothes.

Azula paused in front of Zuko. Had she...? But of course not. She just waved at the room behind them. "Give him twenty minutes, then give him some water. Make sure there's a guard here at all times."

Zuko nodded, and then his sister was gone.

He didn't give it twenty minutes. He waited until Azula was out of sight, made himself count to a hundred, and slipped inside the room.

He closed the door behind him, lighting the lanterns with an absent-minded point of fire bending. There was no sound from the figure on the floor.

Zuko kneeled in front of Sokka. They were of an age, and Zuko marveled at all the twists their life paths must have taken to land them both here, on a Fire Nation ship, in a cell. Sokka still didn't move, and Zuko pulled off one of the uniform gloves so he could feel the bare neck for a pulse.

The water tribe boy's head whipped around and he chomped at Zuko's fingers. Zuko pulled back just in time and had a flame ready in his hand in the next breath.

"Go ahead," Sokka growled. The cough at the end rather undid any effect the words might have had. "Do what you want. I will never betray my friends."

Zuko rolled his eyes, exasperated. This is why he didn't travel the world with an entourage, as the Avatar did, as Azula seemed intent on doing. Too many allies left you with too many weak spots.

He kept the flame dancing as he used his other hand to try to pry Sokka's body out of its protective curl. He didn't talk. He knew his own raspy voice would give him away, and he wasn't entirely sure Sokka wouldn't call for guards at the sight of him.

Although, the more Zuko examined the injuries, the less he suspected Sokka would be in a position to even muster the strength to yell. How was the boy even conscious? He was naked save for underwear - even his feet were bare of boots. He was a surprisingly well-muscled boy (Zuko never would have guessed with all those silly Water Tribe layers), and the skin that wasn't burned was several shades darker than Zuko's own paleness. But...there was very little of that unbroken skin left. And it wasn't burns that mottled the flesh, at least not burns that Zuko was used to. These were black patches riddled with spiderwebs of narcotic flesh. These black patches seemed clustered in the most sensitive places - the soles of the feet, the inside of the arms, the bottom of the ribs.

Had Azula bent lightning into this boy's body? Impossible. Even the Fire Nation had laws about how you were supposed to treat prisoners of war.

A nagging part of Zuko asked: and who enforces those laws?

Before Zuko could search his conscience, second-guess himself, ask any more impossible questions, he did what felt right. He burned the rope that bound Sokka's arms and legs. A hog-tied prisoner. Azula hadn't even given the boy the dignity of standing to meet his fate.

This wasn't right, these burns weren't right, this ship wasn't right. The Fire Nation operated on dignity and honor. They had codes. Scholars wrote ethics into laws. Teenage boys didn't get tortured to death and forgotten in the bowels of their ships. They were better than this.

Zuko was better than this.

He took off his mask, the impossibility of the task ahead just beginning to reveal itself. He needed to get Sokka off this ship, past Azula and her hundred guards.

And then he needed to find a way to expose the hypocrisies of his father.

Zuko looked at the burned boy in front of him, at Sokka's wide eyes at the sight of his scar, and made the decision to betray the Fire Nation.


End file.
